As the cost of doing business has increased due to increases in costs for personnel, insurance, office space and the like, a trend for downsizing office equipment and space has developed. This trend, along with the expanding presence of small businesses, has created a pressure for economy in the workplace. Part of this economy is that a space may be required to fulfill more than one role. At the same time, an awareness of the effects of office aesthetics on morale and productivity has created a desire for pleasant and efficient workspaces. Also, in many cases, open office plans must be divided into individual offices or workstations. Many arrangements are available to divide an open office space, including partition panels, systems furniture, and modular furniture. To meet these needs, attractive yet portable training, conference and office furniture is marketed by Versteel, P.O. Box 850, Jasper, Ind. 47547 (800-876-2120).
Often, it is desired to temporarily arrange structures, such as tables, desks and chairs, in rows or other configurations for training and other meetings. Such arrangements facilitates a productive meeting, maximizes seating capacity in a room of limited size and enhances sightlines of attendees at an event. In addition to aesthetic reasons, the orderly arrangement of structures in rows facilitates ingress and egress when large numbers of people are gathered together.
Oftentimes movable chairs are used to create a row or multiple rows of chairs, to allow flexible seating arrangements, and many different uses of the same floor space. A disadvantage to using movable chairs is that chairs may be accidentally displaced, thus causing a row to become disorganized. In addition to disturbing the aesthetic appearance of a room, the ability to easily disorganize a row of movable chairs creates a safety problem if the room's occupants are required to quickly exit, such as in case of a fire. In fact, local fire codes frequently required adjacent chairs to be interconnected in certain situations.
Interconnecting chairs greatly increases the stability of a single chair and makes it difficult to move. Thus, interconnecting chairs via a ganging device is commonly done to increase safety and enhance the aesthetic appearance of a room when a row or multiple rows of two or more chairs are required.
In many cases, it is desirable to temporarily interconnect desks or tables, leaving the chairs free. In situations where such desk top structures are needed, it is beneficial to provide desk top access to power and communication ports for computers and other electronic devices. Wires and cables must be fed from wall outlets to the first structure and then between each additional structure. Providing supply and communication access to each desk top in a temporary furniture arrangement presents challenges. Improper wire management or shifting of the structures can lead to interruptions in service, workplace hazards and poor aesthetics. Raceway systems for wire management are available from Versteel, P.O. Box 850, Jasper, Ind. 47547-0850 (800-876-2120). Ganging can be a particularly important part of wire management to avoid shifting of the tables which can pinch or disengage wires or cables.
Several patents disclose ganging devices for releasably connecting articles of furniture such as chairs and tables. However, there has remained a need for ganging devices that are non-handed or universal. Such devices would lower manufacturing costs by requiring tooling for only one type of part. Universal ganging devices would also greatly increase convenience because ganging any particular arrangement of furniture would be possible without need for purchasing and adding an additional ganging device. The chair or table would always have the proper ganging device. Because the structures may be later disconnected and moved into another arrangement for another purpose, such devices must be conveniently engageable and disengageable.
One type of universal chair ganging device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,159 to Schultz et al. The Schultz device includes an attachment portion that partially wraps around a horizontal support of the chair. The coupling portion includes a male T-shaped coupling member next to a female coupling element. Two identical coupling members can be mated together by movement in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the floor. In other words, one coupling member must be lifted above the other coupling member before they are mated. This can be inconvenient and difficult if a gap in a row of chairs is to be re-mated. Alternatively the Schultz members can be pre-connected and then snapped onto the horizontal support.
Accordingly, there has remained a need for universal ganging devices which are convenient, inexpensive and attractive.